How to Grow Shaped Pumpkins

Garden fruits and vegetables such as pumpkins, squash and watermelon grow on vines and have firm outer skins at maturity; hard enough that it takes a little effort to mark it with a fingernail. While they grow, the developing fruits are soft and malleable. The immature fruits will grow to fill a mold as long as their mature size is slightly larger than the size of the container.

Container
Mold
Duct tape

Instructions

- 1
  Plant in a container mold that is slightly smaller than the approximate mature size of the variety of pumpkins being grown. The pumpkin's size at maturity usually is included with the cultivating instructions on the seed package. The growing container should be made of hard plastic, terracotta, tempered glass or concrete, keeping in mind that it can be used only once.
- 2
  Place the mold in the pumpkin patch near an infant pumpkin that is about the size of a large orange or grapefruit. Lay the container on its side or set it upright. Set the small pumpkin inside the container.
- 3
  Place enough strips of duct tape across the mouth of the container to hold the pumpkin inside as it grows. Do not tape the pumpkin vine itself and do not completely cover the mouth of the mold with the tape.
- 4
  Check the mold occasionally during the growing season to ensure the pumpkin is still inside and growing into the shape of the mold.
- 5
  Harvest the pumpkin when the vines wither in late fall. Cut it from the vine, leaving about 4 or 5 inches inches of stem attached. Break the mold to release the shaped pumpkin.

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